Biblical verse/Seventeenth century devotional
verse
- Two opposite concepts
of language
- Empiricist/Observational/Inductive/Nominalist
- Baconian--Novum Organum LX
- The idols imposed by words on the understanding
are of two kinds. They are either names of things which do not exist (for as there
are things left unnamed through lack of observation, so likewise are there names
which result from fantastic suppositions and to which nothing in reality corresponds),
or they are names of things which exist, but yet confused and ill-defined, and
hastily and irregularly derived from realities.
- Idealist/Imaginative/Prophetic/Poetic/"Realist"
- Gospel
of Matthew 13
- [Mat 13:3] And
he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth
to sow; [Mat 13:4] And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the
fowls came and devoured them up...
- [Mat
13:10] And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them
in parables? [Mat 13:11] He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
[Mat 13:12] For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
- [Mat 13:13] Therefore speak I to
them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither
do they understand. [Mat 13:14] And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias,
which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye
shall see, and shall not perceive:
- [Mat
13:15] For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be
converted, and I should heal them. [Mat 13:16] But blessed are your eyes, for
they see: and your ears, for they hear.
- Donne:
Expost. 19
- thou art a figurative,
a metaphorical God too; a God in whose words there is such a height of figures,
such voyages, such peregrinations to fetch remote and precious metaphors, such
extensions, such spreadings, such curtains of allegories, such third heavens of
hyperboles, so harmonious elocutions, so retired and so reserved expressions,
so commanding persuasions, so persuading commandments, such sinews even in thy
milk, and such things in thy words, as all profane authors seem of the seed of
the serpent that creeps, thou art the Dove that flies. ..
- Neither
art thou thus a figurative, a metaphorical God in thy word only, but in thy works
too. The style of thy works, the phrase of thine actions, is metaphorical. The
institution of thy whole worship in the old law was a continual allegory; types
and figures overspread all, and figures flowed into figures, and poured themselves
out into farther figures; circumcision carried a figure of baptism, and baptism
carries a figure of that purity which we shall have in perfection in the new Jerusalem.
[typology]
- Psalms
- See metrical psalms by Sidney and Lady Mary Herbert p. 1010
- Personal,
choric, ritual
- Content: bifurcation: good
vs. evil--cf. Revelation, etc. Obedient, disobedient
- Form
follows content
- Parallelism
and contrast--and/not--similarity and difference, 0's and 1's
- Contrast
within parallels
- Tree;
- planted by water;
- bringeth forth;
- not wither
- prosper
- chaff--wind driveth; perish
- Intensification; rhetoric
of power
- Illusion,
rebellion, against Lord and anointed...freedom, Heigh ho
- God will have
them in derision--laugh
- Legitimation of king--land conveyed as inheritance
- Threats and vaunts
- Serve and Kiss
- Heavens declare--symbolic
language; Firmament shows
- Days speak, so do nights--the
order of things
- Comprehensive
- Heavens
are tabernacle for sun
- Sun worship: bridegroom
coming out of chamber; strong man to run a race
- Then
come the laws
- Then comes the value for the person
- Then the prayer of faith--words of my mouth--his speech
be united with God's speech
- Complaint--moving to
direct address; asking or vowing and pledging
- Forsaken--quoted by X on cross
- Contrast
to previous deliverance--fathers trusted
- I am a worm--despised
and mocked
- Previous deliverance--taken from womb
- I am contemned and beset--predicting Passion of Jesus
- Beg for help
- Pledge to
pay vows--declare to others
- Bacon about those shipwrecked
ones
- Offering the tribute of the
future--my story will bring them close to you
- 23
- pastoral--guardianship; protection
- total well
being of sheep; god as shepherd--good shepherd
- Ideal of faith and security
in pastoral landscape
24
- processional--choral exchange--the
ark of the covenant--voices on both sides--triumphant entry of conquering army--king
of glory
- 42
- Soul pants after God--like water--desire--cf. Song of Songs
- Tears
of complaint--searching; cut off from multitude
- Waterspouts and waves
and billows--down in the depths
- Faith in place of enemies; cant get to
the temple in Jerusalem
- 51
- Confession--David after Bathsheba
- Revealing all
- Purge
me
- Begging for renewal
- Promise to convert sinners if saved
- God
wants not sacrifice but a broken heart
- Doctrine of affliction and sincerity
- Reversal--restoration of sacrifices--conflicting doctrines about material
worship
- 137
- Rivers of Babylong we wept; hung up harps on willows
- No singing;
lament; irony of demand
- Pledge not to sing, to take fierce revenge against
the babies of enemies
- 148
- Praise the Lord--all creation
- 150
- Praise the Lord--music; crash of cymbals
- Song
of Solomon [aka Song of Songs, Canticles]
- Erotic
and spiritual
- Praise and exaltation of psalms
- Ch. 3--by
night I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him but I found him not....Psalm
42--Soul pants after God
- Seek and not finding--dreamlike
- Cometh
out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke
- Bridegroom comes--king Solomon--Ps.
19--Sun like bridegroom coming out of chamber
- Ch.4--fountain and garden;
his blazon of her